to expect people to at least try to encourage their children to behave in airports

[Blondilocks]

Title says it all really after enduring waiting at the airport last night with children running riot and generally being bratty while the parents were just chatting & ignoring them.

One child was even dragging the smaller child along the ground by their head & then picked them up upside down & almost dropped them head-first onto the floor.

I'm not a perfect parent but was really surprised they didn't even bat an eyelid. I know it's boring to wait but it's dangerous more than anything as they were running across the flow of people heading to their flights / in front of the airport car things / pushing each other over & into walls & other objects in their way.

X post - that is an improvement.

I was about to shell out £50 for use of a child friendly lounge as well!!!! Maybe I will wait now

Agree with fastedwina

We're flying on Friday for 1st time with our dtwins (5yo). OMG all those perfect parents who are going to be standing and pointing at my ds who will be charging around or worse still having a tantrum and we'll be unable to get him on the plane. Stop judging, you know absolutly nothing about that family. Had they been stuck in seats unable to move for hours on end? Was there an unseen disability? You've not got a clue.

Rebl - maintain tunnel vision, do not make eye contact with other people and then you will be blissfully unaware of all the pole up their arse judgy types

That's a LOT better than Stansted was. Thanks Rosa, was trying to find it on the website yesterday, to no avail.

My mum laughed down the phone when I said there wasn't a play area there anymore. Muttered something about karma, and said I'd be praying for an off switch after an hour of waiting

Nothing to do with beng judgy and for me personally I wasnt talking about any one family in particular.
Yes there are always exceptions and sometimes reasons why children may be being particularly loud/active etc
BUT on the whole most of the children behaving like this in airports do not have special needs they are quite often either bored as no one is paying them any attention or this is actually quite normal behaviour for them as they have permissive parents who let them get away with it. And in that case yes I will put on my judgey pants and pull em up so high my eyes water!

but as said travelling and airports can be hellish and you never know the circumstances. Perhaps the kids have travelled 4 hours to get to the airport or flown from another airport. Or like me got a call my mum was seriously ill, had to drag my 2 and 5 yr old out of school, pack and leave that night on a 13 hr flight and bounce on to another flight all the time worrying about my mum and all this on my own.

'One child was even dragging the smaller child along the ground by their head & then picked them up upside down & almost dropped them head-first onto the floor.'

One child was even dragging the smaller child along the ground by their head & then picked them up upside down & almost dropped them head-first onto the floor.

sounds normal to me

Do look out for the EL family at Heathrow in a few weeks' time, as we prepare to set off for New Zealand. We'll be the ones with a 10yo DD with her head stuck to a Kindle and her manic 7yo brother who'll be trashing the place. DH & I will be glad that he's running off some energy ... but we will endeavour to stop him from injuring anyone other than himself.